VISITATION ~ Its Foundation ~ The Revised Edition

But can you not see John?
How can people understand these scriptures
if we do not give them assistance
through the arts and literature?

They end up accepting as truth
that which we both know is often
fairytale!

Writing VISITATION on the Train between Liverpool and Cheltenham in 2014, writing the first edition of Quantum Leap in 2015 and now in its Second Edition From Death to Life ~ That Quantum Leap, and Ocean Dark circa 2013-2014 have been notable events along life’s timeline, simply because none were planned, none were composed.

Alas, I do not have the discipline and expertise of the poet or the writer of literature. This really comes home with the force of a battering ram when reading any of the biographies of the great poets and writers and discovering their skills that are so profound, so beautifully akin to the finest engineering skills with any language, that I just sit quietly and think in quiet wonder.

For me, it is a very personal thing. A line comes into my head when I least expect it, and only later, do I realise that I was in the same instant subconsciously reaching for the pencil or even Qwerty. The lines below, likewise, fall into that category.

They express my impatience at those who would scoff at poetry and prose as being very poor and inadequate substitutes for sacred texts; texts that the individual knows and recites so well that there is a tendency to slip into auto-cruise control.

Many years ago, I visited friends in Liverpool and on the wall in the lounge was a quite grand painting in the style of mid to late Victorian, of the Road to Emmaus. I know the road well from my times in Israel, and we chatted, but I knew the scriptural rendition, too. I described the beauty of the painting and the account it depicted and then brought the painting to its climax in that last verse … did not our hearts burn within us?!?!

I wanted to encourage people to go behind the words, and to see, feel, hear and smell the events being reported.

That is why Visitation is such an important construct in all my writing.

Simply put, I invite the reader to accompany me along the same road that we see the two young poets walking somewhere high on the Cotswolds. To be in earnest and deep discussion and conversation, wherein we find we are unaware of how far we have walked and how far therefore we must walk to return from whence we came; and this is what young people do even today in this social media age.

The Contention

Even the most sublime scripture

remains static, immoveable,

locked within its parameters.

Literature and Poetry

step beyond those parameters.

Only the minds of the spiteful insist

the parameters be secured ever more tightly.

And if this still fails

to keep the soul and spirit

locked firmly within,

then there is only one thing for it…

That which totalitarian regimes do

without even the blink of the eyelid.

So to every person who

enjoys writing poetry,

reading poetry,

seeing the world

through the beauty of poetry,

stand firm, I say.

Let the fanatics do their worst.

They can extinguish life, for sure,

They will never extinguish the soul and the spirit.

For these will cause the fanatic

to dance to oblivion.

20 August 2023

All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb

This Preamble to Visitation is inspired by the Great War Poet Wilfred Owen ~ A Biography by Dominic Hibberd (2002)

Digital Artwork is by © 2023 KTW unless otherwise stated

First Written on 4 June 2023